Ok, technically not drinking right this second, but this afternoon I had a nice session with some Imperial TGY from Yunnan Sourcing, another mellow tea for a rough day at the office. Now pondering the next tea and stuck on the question of oolong vs puerh: it's been that difficult of a day!

Tie Guan Yin from Teaspring. I was not blown away by it initially - actually found it a bit flat... until by chance it encountered the magical teaware combination: a small unglazed Petr Novak shibo and a Bill Perrine yunomi. All of a sudden it is WHAMMM!: full flavour for infusion after infusion. Scrum!

A variation on a theme today: enjoying more high-mountain oolong cold brewed, but this time not one of the very green versions--a medium roast Alishan from Norbu. Just a light base roasted note, and very tasty overall. Enjoying it from my 'Mojave' cup--from TC Hagi SSO #18--the big volume is just right for a long cool draught.

Still hot here today, so it will be cold brewing all day long. The new kettle will have to wait until tomorrow.

Aged Baozhong from SilentChaos (aka OriginTea). This is fancy stuff he brought me when he visited HK. My first roasted and aged BZ, and it appears to be a good example. More dirty bubbles than I'm used to for a non-pu erh, but it definitely has interesting roast flavor and a bouquet unlike anything I've tried before. I guess it could indeed be described as melon-like. It is a little bitter, sour and sweet all at the same time, like a high roast Wuyi. I believe this was roasted or reroasted quite recently (2-5 years ago?). Very interesting tea for sure!

William wrote:Comparing some TGY (very low oxidation) with Jingdezhen porcelain (right), 90s Zi Ni (center) and modern Yixing clay (probably clay of low/medium quality - left).Bet who has made the best cup?